Every September 1, teams across the league call up a myriad of players: some top prospects, some fringe specialists, and the occasional organizational soldier. They all have different purposes leading to one main goal: improving the big league team over the season’s final five weeks. This year looked to be no different approaching September, then began a wave of arguments against the practices of September roster expansion. Historians will identify Joel Sherman of the New York Postas the first writer to shoot. Sherman’s article offered strong language, supporting quotes from those within the industry, and, in a clear act of aggression, a Three Stooges reference. Sherman concludes like so:

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The waiver wire awaits a number of players if they don't make the big-league roster.

Within a fortnight, pitchers and catchers will report for duty, thus marking the beginning of the spring and starting the countdown until the league-wide roster crunch. As difficult as picking the best 25 players can be, the occasionally arcane roster rules add even more complications to the equation. Options are the most notorious and popular forms of restrictions placed upon the teams. The goal is simple: to limit talent hoarding and to assist players in finding opportunities.

Despite the notoriety, options remain shrouded in mystery. Thomas Gorman’s primer from early 2006 remains an indispensable resource for those seeking deeper understanding. The casual observer should keep three rules of thumb in mind when thinking about options:

Explaining a seldom-used and confusing procedure that enables a club to quickly clear a roster spot.

When Scott Mathieson made his major-league debut approximately four years ago, the Philadelphia Phillies were a very different team. David Bell played third base, Aaron Rowand patrolled center field, and the three-headed monster of Mike Lieberthal, Sal Fasano and Chris Coste were the catchers. Mathieson, a 22-year old flamethrower, had shown plenty of promise but was still in need of some seasoning, which made things all the more disappointing when he fell prey to the injury bug and had to go under the knife for surgery on his ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. The road back has been tenuous, as rehabilitation was stunted by the need for a second Tommy John surgery. After successfully rehabbing from the second surgery, Mathieson found himself a minor-league reliever with fans clamoring for his presence on the big club’s roster.

When drafting in a league that goes beyond standard 4x4 or 5x5 formats, which players you value can change radically.

Last year around this time I wrote about the draft in my fantasy league, where we play with a different set of rules than the standard ones, with changes made to the formula that force you to think a little differently. It's fun to challenge yourself by playing in leagues with unique setups, as it gives you a chance to break away from the standard roster construction that you've become accustomed to through years of playing the standard fantasy game.

Jeff walks us through the often complicated decisions to keep players or cut them loose.

This is a big time of year for keeper league owners. There's little happening in the way of ongoing news with our fantasy players, so now is a great time for each franchise to dwell on who their potential keepers will be. Although many dedicated owners may have spent much of the winter undergoing this exercise, now is especially timely. Pitchers and catchers are closer to reporting to spring training, and with that, some of the lesser-dedicated owners might now be more inclined to pay attention and--more importantly--be ready to trade.

Tom answers some reader mail to clarify the more confusing option rules.

Please take a look at Rick Ankiel's career and see if you think he was really out of options last year.

Unless they moved him to the 40-man roster in 1999 before his big league debut, it seems to me that 2001 would have been his first option year. He missed all of 2002 so 2003 would've been his second option year.

Complicated and confusing, the option rules govern the movement of 40-man roster players to and from the minor leagues.

To be placed on the 40-man roster, a player needs to be given a major-league contract. When teams want to assign those contracts to a minor-league club (that is, when teams want one of their 40-man players to
play for an affiliated minor-league franchise) they give the player
an "optional assignment" down to the minor-league team (as opposed to
an "outright assignment," which we'll leave for another day). An option is not used only
when a player is shifted off the 25-man roster and down to the minors.
An option is also expended when a player on the 40-man is assigned to a
minor-league roster. For example, a player with a 40-man contract who
spends his entire season in the minor leagues does use an option even though he never made it to the 25-man active roster of the
major-league squad.

The optional assignment language signifies that the team has reserved
a "right of recall" and can recall the player to the active list of
their major league roster. Optional assignments are not subject to
waiver approval from the other 29 clubs, and they give a team a great
deal of freedom to move players onto and off of their major-league
active rosters.

Head-to-head or rotisserie? Traditional stats or sabermetric? One league or two? Starting up a fantasy league involves answering a lot of questions.

So, picking up the ball Ron Shandler left on the mound in a recent series of articles at BaseballHQ, I'm going to offer some suggestions on how to set up a league tailored to the Baseball Prospectus crowd.

Like any number of other folks with a long-running obsession with all things sports, I've spent a fair amount of time engrossed in simulation games. For much of my youth, I played hours upon hours of Lance Haffner 3-in-1 Football on my trusty and abiding Apple IIe. I once famously led the 1986 Michigan State Spartans and QB Dave Yarema to a majestic Rose Bowl win and a national title by instituting what I believe to be a heady forerunner to the once de rigueur run-and-shoot offense (in real life they were a paltry 6-5....Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, George Perles). Years later, guided by my steady, knowing hand, Max Knake of TCU would pass for more than 800 yards as my Horned Frogs crushed Texas 86-21.
Nineteen eighty-six was also a fine year for my incursions into Lance Haffner Full-Count Baseball. In a stroke of organizational genius, I, as potentate of the Cardinals, engineered trades for Dave Magadan of the Mets (whose card had him hitting a robust .444/.524/.444 in 21 plate appearances) and Mark Ryal of the Angels (.375/.412/.562 in 34 plate appearances). By having the faith and foresight to plug them into the lineup full-time and lavishing the team with "sample size be damned" statistical goofiness that followed, the disappointing '86 Redbirds became pennant winners when fashioned in my image.

Like any number of other folks with a long-running obsession with all things sports, I've spent a fair amount of time engrossed in simulation games. For much of my youth, I played hours upon hours of Lance Haffner 3-in-1 Football on my trusty and abiding Apple IIe. I once famously led the 1986 Michigan State Spartans and QB Dave Yarema to a majestic Rose Bowl win and a national title by instituting what I believe to be a heady forerunner to the once de rigueur run-and-shoot offense (in real life they were a paltry 6-5....Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, George Perles). Years later, guided by my steady, knowing hand, Max Knake of TCU would pass for more than 800 yards as my Horned Frogs crushed Texas 86-21.